Africa (except North Africa)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — As the U.S. government was considering Kenya to lead a multinational force in Haiti, it was also openly warning Kenyan police officers against violent abuses. Now 1,000 of those officers might head to Haiti to take on gang warfare.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Hundreds of people rallied in support of Niger’s ruling junta in the capital on Thursday, denouncing France and others who have criticized a recent coup — as the country’s military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Nearly 10 years ago, Mariame Coulibaly Sangare lost everything when armed violence in northern Mali forced her to flee her home. Desperate for money, she saw an opportunity with the arrival of a new United Nations peacekeeping mission in the West African nation’s capital, Bamako.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Not everyone is hostile to the coups in Niger and other African nations in the past few years that have worried the West. In the “family photo” for last week’s Russia-Africa Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood next to Ibrahim Traore, the young military officer who seized power in Burkina Faso in September.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — France prepared to evacuate French and other European nationals from Niger on Tuesday, telling them to carry no more than a small bag, after a military coup there won backing from three other West African nations ruled by mutinous soldiers.

The French Foreign Ministry in Paris cited recent violence that targeted the French Embassy in Niamey, the capital, as one of the reasons for the decision.

The closure of Niger’s airspace also “leaves our compatriots unable to leave the country by their own means,” the ministry said.

NIAMEY, July 31 (Reuters) - In 2011, after two decades climbing the ranks of Niger's army, Abdourahamane Tiani was handed one of the military's most prized appointments: the head of an elite unit set up to protect the president.

Last week, Tiani, a general, used his position and manpower to do the opposite. He imprisoned President Mohamed Bazoum in the presidential palace and appeared on state television on Friday to declare himself head of state, confirming the seventh military coup in West and Central Africa in three years.

NIAMEY, July 31 (Reuters) - The junta that seized power in Niger last week detained three more senior politicians from the ousted government on Monday, their party said, in defiance of international calls to restore democratic rule.

Following days of turmoil, the International Monetary Fund said that it was closely monitoring developments in Niger. But the IMF has not yet taken any specific actions in response to the coup.

It has yet to disburse a $131.5 million loan to Niger that was approved on July 5, it added.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — African leaders have left two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin with little to show for their requests to resume a deal that kept grain flowing from Ukraine and to find a path to end the war there.

Putin in a press conference late Saturday following the Russia-Africa summit said Russia’s termination of the grain deal earlier this month caused a rise in grain prices that benefits Russian companies. He added that Moscow would share some of those revenues with the “poorest nations.”

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Thousands of people backing the coup in Niger marched through the streets of the capital denouncing France, the country’s former colonial power, waving Russian flags, and setting a door at the French Embassy ablaze on Sunday before the army broke up the crowd.

NAIROBI, July 29 (Reuters) - Kenya is ready to lead a multinational force into Haiti, which is experiencing a surge in violence between police and gangs, its foreign minister said on Saturday.

An escalation of violence by Haiti's armed gangs is driving a humanitarian crisis that has displaced tens of thousands of people.

Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the Security Council and major potential contribution countries to act fast to create the conditions for the deployment of multinational force to Haiti.